Good lighting can change how a room looks, feels, and functions. It’s the difference between a bathroom that feels like a hotel spa and one that feels like a gas station restroom. It’s why one kitchen feels warm and inviting at 7 p.m. while another feels like a hospital corridor. And here in the Chicagoland area — where we spend a good four or five months of the year with limited daylight — lighting isn’t a finishing touch. It’s a core part of how your home works.
At Century City Baths, we’ve remodeled hundreds of bathrooms across Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, and lighting is one of the most underestimated elements of any project. Homeowners will agonize over tile selection for weeks and then default to whatever fixture the contractor has on hand. That’s a missed opportunity.
Here’s how to think about lighting in a way that actually improves your daily life — in your bathroom first, and in every other room, too.
Start With Layers, Not Fixtures
The most common lighting mistake is expecting one fixture to do all the work. A single ceiling light in the middle of a room creates flat, unflattering illumination with harsh shadows in all the wrong places.
Professional lighting design relies on three layers working together:
Ambient lighting is your general illumination — the light that lets you move safely through a space. This is your recessed cans, flush-mount ceiling fixtures, or a central chandelier.
Task lighting is focused light where you actually do things: shaving, applying makeup, reading, chopping vegetables. In a bathroom, this is almost always vanity lighting.
Accent lighting adds depth and dimension. Think toe-kick lighting under a floating vanity, a small fixture highlighting a niche in the shower, or LED strips inside a glass-front cabinet.
When all three layers are present, a room feels finished. When one is missing — usually task or accent — something feels off, even if you can’t name what it is.
Bathroom Lighting: Get the Vanity Right
If you take away one thing from this post, make it this: overhead light alone will never give you good vanity lighting.
A recessed can directly above the mirror casts shadows down onto your face — under your eyes, under your nose, under your chin. It’s the single most common complaint we hear from homeowners about their old bathrooms, and most of them never realized the fixture placement was the culprit.
The solution is cross-illumination. Mount sconces on either side of the mirror at roughly 66 inches from the floor, spaced about 36 to 40 inches apart. Light hits your face from both sides at eye level, filling in shadows instead of creating them. This is how theater dressing rooms have been lit for over a century, and it works.
If your layout won’t accommodate side sconces — narrow powder rooms and tight condo baths in the city often won’t — a wide horizontal fixture mounted above the mirror is the next best option. Look for something at least 24 inches wide with a diffused shade that spreads light rather than spotlighting it. Backlit LED mirrors are another excellent option, and they’ve come a long way in both quality and price.
Don’t Forget the Shower
A lot of older Chicagoland bathrooms — especially in bungalows and two-flats built before 1960 — have a single ceiling fixture and nothing in the shower. The result is a dim, cave-like enclosure, and if you’ve installed beautiful tile in there, you can’t even see it.
A wet-rated recessed light in the shower makes a dramatic difference for both safety and aesthetics. It’s a small addition during a remodel and one of the upgrades homeowners consistently tell us they’re glad they made. If you have a freestanding tub, consider a dedicated fixture over it as well — a small pendant or a recessed light on its own switch lets you dial the room down to a relaxing glow.
Pay Attention to Color Temperature
Color temperature is measured in Kelvin, and it dramatically affects how a room feels.
- 2700K is warm and yellow, similar to traditional incandescent bulbs. Cozy and relaxing.
- 3000K is soft white — still warm but slightly crisper. This is our go-to recommendation for most bathrooms.
- 3500K–4000K is neutral to cool white. Good for task-heavy areas like laundry rooms or garage workspaces.
- 5000K+ is daylight. Bright and blue-toned. Great for a workshop, jarring in a bathroom.
Whatever you choose, keep it consistent within a room. Mixing a 2700K vanity light with 4000K recessed cans creates a subtly unsettling effect — one side of the room looks yellow, the other looks blue. It’s the kind of thing people notice without knowing why.
For makeup application and grooming, also pay attention to CRI (Color Rendering Index). Look for bulbs rated 90 CRI or higher. They render skin tones accurately, so what you see in the mirror matches what you’ll look like when you walk outside.
Put Everything on Dimmers
This is the highest-value, lowest-cost lighting upgrade available. Dimmers let a single room serve multiple purposes: bright and functional at 7 a.m., soft and calming at 10 p.m.
A bathroom at full brightness during a 2 a.m. trip is genuinely unpleasant. On a dimmer, it’s a non-issue. In the kitchen, dimmers let you shift from meal prep to dinner party without changing a single fixture. In the bedroom, they let you wind down gradually.
Just make sure your dimmer is compatible with your LED bulbs. Mismatched dimmers and LEDs cause flickering, buzzing, and limited dimming range — a frustrating and completely avoidable problem. Any qualified electrician can spec the right pairing.
Room-by-Room Considerations
Kitchen: Under-cabinet lighting is non-negotiable. Overhead fixtures throw your own shadow onto the countertop when you’re standing at the counter. Add pendants over an island for task light and visual interest.
Living room: Skip the single overhead fixture. Use a combination of table lamps, floor lamps, and possibly wall sconces to create pools of light at different heights. This is what makes a room feel layered and comfortable rather than institutionally lit.
Bedroom: Wall-mounted reading sconces or swing-arm lamps beside the bed free up nightstand space and let one person read while the other sleeps.
Hallways and stairs: Often neglected, always important — especially in older Chicago homes with steep, narrow staircases. Consistent, adequate lighting here is a genuine safety matter.
Basement: Chicagoland basements need more light than you’d think. Low ceilings and limited natural light mean you should plan for more fixtures at a higher output than you’d use upstairs.
Work With What Your Home Gives You
Chicagoland housing stock is diverse, and lighting strategy should respond to that.
In vintage bungalows and greystones, plaster ceilings and limited access can make recessed lighting complicated. Surface-mount fixtures, sconces, and well-placed lamps often make more sense — and honestly, they suit the architecture better anyway.
In condos and high-rises, concrete ceilings may rule out recessed cans entirely. Wall-mounted fixtures and track lighting become your best tools.
In newer suburban construction, you likely have more flexibility with ceiling access, which means recessed lighting layouts are easier to execute. Use that flexibility to place light where it’s actually needed rather than defaulting to a symmetrical grid.
Plan Lighting Early, Not Last
Here’s the practical takeaway: lighting decisions need to happen before the walls close up. Once drywall is hung and tile is set, adding a sconce, moving a junction box, or running a new circuit becomes expensive and disruptive.
When we plan a bathroom remodel at Century City Baths, we’re mapping electrical alongside plumbing and layout from the very beginning. Where will the mirror hang? How tall is the homeowner? Is there a window, and what direction does it face? Does anyone in the household apply makeup or shave daily? These questions determine fixture placement, and fixture placement determines whether the finished bathroom actually works.
It’s the kind of detail that doesn’t show up in a before-and-after photo but that you feel every single morning.
Ready to Rethink Your Lighting?
If your bathroom feels dark, dated, or unflattering — or if you’ve just never been happy with how it looks and can’t figure out why — lighting is very often the answer.
Century City Baths serves homeowners throughout Chicago and the surrounding suburbs with bathroom remodeling that accounts for every detail, lighting included. We handle design, permitting, and installation, and we’ll walk you through your options in plain language.
Contact Century City Baths today to schedule a free consultation. Let’s talk about what your space could be.
